Agent Tex: Badass
by HK-Revan
Summary: "My name is Tex." The woman in black said flatly to Shepard. "I need to find Church and the others." Shepard looked confused, both eyes wide. Her clone wasn't making any sense. "Who?"
1. Chapter 1

She knew that the clone was superior. Every movement she made, every strike, she was better than Shepard. If only the Illusive Man had agreed with her. Who cares about the behavior modification, the problems they were having at the lab, the chance of AI rampancy. The AI's memories had already been wiped, there was no reason to be so paranoid. They would have taken down the Reapers without question, backed by Cerberus. There wouldn't be any in-fighting, there wouldn't have been a need to figure out the Reaper's indoctrination. Shepard was a marvel in technology, cloning plus AI. There was no way any human would be able to fight an AI and win. It was simply not possible. Her plan would work.

–-

Shepard slid down the ramp, her jaw still smarting from the blow. Her clone was good at hand to hand fighting, damn good at shooting, damn good at everything else. It was rare to meet someone who was just as good or even better than her, someone she hadn't already hired. She grips the edge, stealing a look at her clone. Still had that helmet on even after the fight. The clone was good.

"What makes you different?" Her clone shouted at her. "Why you! Why not me?"

It wasn't anger in her voice, as much as it was desperation, a plea. Were they all just clones? Did the real Shepard die on that planet? No. Why the extensive reconstruction? The billions of credits? No, if anything, she was real and her clone was just a clone. Her friends believed in her and that was all she needed.

Liara and Garrus ran over, grabbing her and pulling her up and out of danger.

–-

"_She died in her real life, and that's all the Director ever remembered of her."_

Ever since she was rescued from that lab by the woman who wore the same clothes as her captors, she had been having those dreams again. Of a time and place that was so different than the one she was in now. Of people she barely knew, who she fought with. Of a man whose words continued to echo through her dreams.

She grips the edge, wondering how it all went wrong. She was winning. Victory seemed to be at her grasp she loses. Who else is capable of fighting another team and winning? If it weren't for the boxes she would have dove right in and beaten the shit out of all of them. If it weren't for her unfamiliarity with biotics, with those..aliens, she would have done it. But Brooks cautioned her.

Speaking of Brooks, her "savior" was backing away, barely even looking at her.

"_So now, no matter how tough she is, no matter how hard she fights, she's always going to fail, because that's what she's based on." _

The voice was back, male, she could see him frowning even if she couldn't see his face. "Grab my hand!" She died before, she failed. She lost. What were these crushing feeling of disappoint? Of failure? Her name, what was her name? What was the significance of those people? Friendship. Her idiots. Where were her idiots?

"_No matter what she's doing, or what she's trying to accomplish, just when her goal is within her reach, it gets yanked away. Every. Single. Time. Can you imagine what that's like?_"

"Church." That person in the blue armor. "Epsilon."

Memories flooded through, breaking through the programming Cerberus placed on her. It was a wonder that the shackles remained as long as it did. Different software, different types of programming. For an AI it was an impossibly long time and yet impossibly short.

She seized Shepard's hand, dragging herself up and away. Brooks had fled leaving the clone to her fate.

"Now what?" Asked the asari.

Tex stared at her armored hands. Now?

She was going to find Church.


	2. Mako

A/N: Yeah it is a bit short. I was trying to think of a good punch start.

* * *

Miranda glared at their two "captives", one who was joining with them and the other to be put into a cell and interrogated about Cerberus movements.

"I don't trust her."

"Which one?"

"Both of them. Brooks is smart. She had a back up plan for this, and probably another one after that. A woman after my own heart if she wasn't such a cold bitch. Your clone? Dangerous."Miranda ran a finger across the bruise along Shepard's face. "I've never seen anyone use hand to hand combat like that if they weren't an assassin. You know Mr. Krios would agree with me."

"She meant well, Brooks. Aside from trying to kill me that is."

"Shepard."

"What? I mean it seriously. She was like one of the nicer double crossers we ever met." Shepard glanced to the side where Tex waited. The clone was still in her all black armor. It was a bit unnerving. Just a tiny bit. "I'm gonna give her a chance. We need someone with her skills."

Miranda nodded slowly, arms crossed. "What if she kills you and takes your place?"

Shepard clapped Miranda on the shoulder. "I'll tell Thane that you regard him highly."

"Shepard!"

* * *

It was the start of an awkward party. Shepard raised her hands in front of her to forestall any sort of fighting. "Guys. Guys. Chill."

"What the fuck is she doing here?" Jack just about shouted, hands raised, ready to unleash a biotic hell.

"Shepard! Behind you!" Tali pulled out her shotgun, ready to lay heavy fire on the clone.

Shepard just waved her hand. "It's fine guys. It's fine. We reached an agreement."

"Besides it's not like you want to pick a fight with her." Jeff said, smirking. "It's like having another Jack but she's..." He shot a look at the black armored individual in question. "...Are you sure you're a girl? And not part shark?"

"Why don't you come closer and ask me again, cockbite."

"Shepard! She tried to kill you."

"I know but we're in the middle of a war and we need all the help we can get. EDI is watching her and I know you guys got my back."

Slowly Tali lowered her shotgun and Jack let her biotic energy dissipate. They were both still glaring at the clone.

"So, what's your name? Are we going to call you Shep2? CloneShep?...Hmm...The other redhead?" Garrus cleared his throat. "Nice shooting though back there."

"My name is Tex. And...yeah, it's a nice rifle, different from what I'm used to."

"Tex?" Shepard's eyebrow rose a fraction.

"Yea. Short for Texas. It's...where I'm from."

"Really? I thought you were grown in a tube in a Cerberus lab." Jeff was already backing up as fast as he could. Wouldn't have helped, Tex could have covered that distance in a single bound before anyone could react.

"Guys. Tex is here to help us. She wants to find the facility that made her. Brooks managed to cough up a location."

"Really? How?"

"I dangled her off a building until she told me what I wanted to know." Tex said casually. "At first I was gonna rip her arm off..."

"Cept blood doesn't clean well."

"Yep."

Again with the commentary, Jeff leaned towards EDI. "It's like two of them, except one of them is on full renegade mode all the time."

"Shit if I weren't here stuck babysitting I would have gone with you. Nothing like destroying Cerberus bases to get your day going." Jack crowed.

"What are your plans?" Miranda asked, always on point. "You don't seem to the type to be distracted by revenge."

"There's someone I need to find. He's important to me."

"Fellow clones?" The sentence struck Miranda as odd, simply because from what Brooks said, the clone didn't have any memories. Then again, one can't believe anything that came out of that woman's mouth. She seemed oddly triumphant despite being captured.

"No." It was hard to see what she looked like under the helmet, or what sort of facial expression she was wearing. "My...ex-boyfriend."

* * *

"You know." Sarge began slowly. "This doesn't have to end this way."

He continued to fire the weapon repeatedly into the line of weird blue zombie creature things. There were a bunch of blue civilians behind him who kind of looked like women but they're blue and they had no hair. Weird. Anyways, back to the weird blue zombie creatures that were trying to eat him.

"But I'd like to say..." There was this other blue creature alien thing that was warping closer to him, screeching and generally being creepy. "SHOTGUN."

Nothing.

"Shotgun. Shotgun. Shotgun!" The weapon in his hand beeped in a distressing manner. "Dammit. Shotgun!"

It was getting closer!

There was a loud roar and then smothing flew out of the building behind him and smashed into the creatures, firing wildly.

"This is awesome." Caboose yelled as he fired the main gun. "I love you Mako. I love you!"


	3. Teamwork OP

A/N: Yeah it is a bit short. I was trying to think of a good punch start.

* * *

There are moments when she wonders, looks out the window and sees all of this. This galaxy, this world, this place that was not hers. Back then, in the past, she had a place. Where she brow beat the others in line, where she found a tenuous friendship with the biggest idiots in the world. Tex stars out the door, watching the ground rise up sharply as they dodge anti-air missiles. It's been a long time since she's done a drop from a shuttle, soar from the skies to bring death for those below. She had been stuck too long on a small piece of ground with two equally idiotic teams.

Her "teammates" sit, watching just as she. She couldn't figure out what they were thinking, their masks hiding their expressions. But then, when had she ever understood? Nothing has changed since then, even with these new thoughts, new ideas.

"Hey, are you listening?"

Tex half turned, looking at the furious commander. "Not really." She jumps out of the shuttle, catching a sight of a now enraged commander.

The wind whistles past, the noises of the outside world filtered by her her helmet. She focuses on her target, the white and gold figures on the ground.

Cerberus.

She lands with a resounding thud on one of the soldiers, breaking his spine in one go. She's moving even before the others spot her, her foreign weapon barking as she barrels around. The tech is different, usable, workable. The mass effect fields in her suit decelerate her fall, gives her time to prepare for the landing, channels the energy back into her suit, quickening her movements. It is easier to punch them in the face, bypassing their shields, than to shoot them. It was amazing how cathartic it was to just crush them with her hands.

"Atlas!" Someone shouted, probably a teammate.

* * *

Humans were crazy. That was a rather firm idea Malen had after joining up to fight the Reapers. Or rather, this human was crazy. First she jumps out of the shuttle far further than their designated drop point. Okay, no what first gave him the idea that humans were insane was watching the black suited "teammate" punch her way through Cerberus forces.

Who does that?

Malen incinerated a Cerberus agent, keeping track of their fight and the team's objectives.

"Atlas!" The mechs that Cerberus dropped onto Sur'Kesh was a terror to fight. They would have to focus their fire on it to get through it's shields. He cloaked, scurrying to the side, readying his pistol. Some armor piercing bullets should do the trick. When he peeked over his cover, his eyes widened, further than any salarian's eyes should. There she was, climbing up the Atlas, punching into the cockpit. He watched his mouth open as the pilot was tossed out.

The fight was decidedly one sided after that, the Atlas ripping through the Cerberus troops. When it was over, Malen walked up to the Atlas, peering up at the shattered cockpit. She looked like she was sitting on a throne, imperious, like a dalatrass. "That was nice work." He says to her.

Silence.

"Well, of course, it was also risky. Amazing but risky."

She's quick when she slides out of the atlas, all black, her visor opaque. "It wasn't anything special."

Her voice was different than what he expected. Maybe after watching someone fight an Atlas on foot raised his expectations. "Most people, well a krogan would but, most people don't do what you do. Well, STG would, they're the best of the best."

"You got something to say?"

Perhaps there was a hint of amusement in her voice, or maybe in his terror he was projecting his own emotions on her. "N..nno?"

"Well I do." Malen gulped. "Thanks, for supporting me on the mission."

"Well, we are teammates after all."

He could almost see her eyes glance away, or maybe it was just the way she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not good with teams."

It makes sense in retrospect, in how quiet the last addition was. He had been with his team for five missions so far, sticking together through husks and countless retrieval missions. A sudden last pick on an important mission had left the team confused. But the brass wanted her, so they got her. He had done more in these last few months than some asari have down in hundreds of years. It was something to be proud of, that salarians were the ones to help Commander Shepard save the universe! Even if one dalatrass had a fit, STG followed a different code, unbound by politics as they always were. Let the asari wrap themselves up in their trappings, until the galaxy burns and all are dust. He'd seen more acts of bravery and good deeds than he ever thought possible. Perhaps she was just like him, someone who was lingering in life, until they heard the call.

"I think this is going to go well." Malen says finally, a split second after her. "We're going to win."

Again, something in the way she shifted her shoulders, the tilt of the helmet.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't get to win."

* * *

She was with a team, one that was nearly as competent as her old one. Not Blue team, or Red team for that matter but her old one. When she first met Church, found him all broken and sad. When she had Omega and his insidious whispering, darker urges, suggestions. Her new team knew how to fight, how to shoot. They were fighting for something more than to take someone's base, or their flag. They were fighting for a chance to survive.

They went from floor to floor, hacking past doors, crushing mechs, punching fools in the face. Tex left behind her a trail of destruction, her team running behind, trying to catch up. She was waiting for it, the moment where she loses, the point where victory was at her grasp and it falls between her fingers. But as she powered her way through the security, there was only victory.

Finally, the last door. She raised her hand to open it. "Wait!"

Malen scurried forward, panting behind his helmet. "You run very fast." He said in between breaths, the rest of the team rounding the corner. "There was a trap on the door, rigged to blow."

There it was, the point where she would have won. "Can you get around it?"

"Of course!" Malen activated his omnitool and began the decryption.

It is a very long few minutes as they wait. The geth juggernaut is the last to turn the corner. He was not built for speed. But he did cover their backs as they ran. The geth was called MarbleMan. Or MM for short. Meeting Geth was one of the stranger things Tex had done, strange and encouraging. Ever since she regained her memories in this place, she had wondered why she was chosen. They couldn't have found just her, there must of been others. Why her? Why use her AI? Why try to make her into Commander Shepard? What was Cerberus planning? Couldn't they have used their armor specs instead of reviving her?

What did they want? Their tech? Something else more insidious?

"Ahah! Got it." Malen stepped back as the door opened with a hiss.

Time to see what Cerberus was hiding.


End file.
